Lasagna Soup, Packed Down
Lasagna without the layering, rebuilt around freeze-dried beef and a pot of hot water.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 2 oz | rehydrates in about ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for the jar of sauce |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 2 tbsp, chopped | the fire-roasted can, minus the water weight |
| Beef bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Oregano, onion powder, garlic powder | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Lasagna noodles | 3 sheets, snapped small | or 1 cup broken egg noodles, which cook faster |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | the ricotta substitute |
| Grated parmesan | 1/4 cup | the dry shelf-stable kind |
| Dried spinach flakes | 1/4 cup | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch |
Method
- Boil 650 ml of water. Add the beef, tomato powder, sun-dried tomatoes, bouillon, and all the dried spices. Stir until the powder is gone.
- Simmer five minutes with the lid on. This is the slow cooker's whole job, compressed.
- Drop in the broken noodles and the spinach flakes. Simmer another six to eight minutes, stirring often so the noodles do not weld to the bottom.
- Pull it off the heat. Sprinkle the milk powder over the surface and stir it in, then the parmesan.
- Add the oil and the pepper flakes. Let it sit two minutes to thicken before you eat.
The original is a slow cooker recipe: brown beef, dump in a jar of sauce and a quart of broth, walk away for six hours. None of that travels. Jarred sauce is mostly water in glass, broth is water, ricotta is a cold-chain problem, and fresh spinach turns to slime by day two. So everything wet became a powder and the six hours became twelve minutes over a stove.
The milk powder and parmesan are doing the ricotta’s job — fat and body stirred in off the heat so it goes creamy instead of grainy. Add them while the pot is still boiling and the proteins seize into curds floating in red broth. Tomato powder is worth sourcing over more bouillon; it is what makes this read as lasagna and not as beef noodle soup.
Packing
Two bags. Bag one is everything dry except the noodles, milk powder, and cheese. Bag two is the milk powder and parmesan, which go in at the end and will clump if they boil. Noodles ride loose in a third bag or they punch holes in the others.
Variations
- Instant mashed potato flakes, a tablespoon at a time, thicken it fast if you overshot on water.
- Swap the noodles for gluten-free lasagna sheets or rice ramen. They soften faster, so cut the second simmer to four minutes.
- A foil packet of pepperoni cut into coins adds fat and salt without another cooking step.
https://mealswithmaria.site/lasagna-soup-slow-cooker